Cleanest & Greenest Cars Comparsion

I went over the Solar Today spreadsheet in some more detail. Assuming that the owner of a particular vehicle uses “best practices” i.e. fuels their vehicle using the cleanest fuel available for that car, and making some crude estimates of the embedded carbon footprint of the energy costs of building the car in the first place, these are my estimates based on their spreadsheet for the 10-year carbon footprint costs of owning a particular car.

The SUV listed are the hybrid versions. Electricity fuel is assumed to be from wind or solar ie the owner asks their utility company to provide them with “100% green electricity”. Diesels are assumed to be powered from B100 biodiesel, and that diesel is assumed to be 60% less embedded fossil fuel total grow cycle compared to gasoline. E85 is assumed to be slightly i.e. 10% better total fuel cycle than gasoline – although the numbers about how much better if any ethanol is which I have seen vary widely. CNG I am using US government figures of being 90% cleaner. PHEVs I am assuming that 90% of the miles are from electricity – i.e. that their owners are very good citizens re resisting the temptation to run them in gasoline mode. Ask me if you want a copy of my spreadsheet. Based on these assumptions, my conclusions are:

• Electric vehicles come out on top.
• Plug in hybrids do very well but they still have a carbon footprint about 2X bigger than electric cars
  • (this surprises me because I am a big fan of PHEVs!)
• CNG vehicles do very well even though they are fossil fuel
• Biodiesel vehicles do very well
• Even the best current small hybrids do much worse
• Even current motorcycles do much worse
• Bioethanol from corn vehicles are a cruel joke
• SUVs and trucks are a disaster even if they are hybrids

Here’s some quick comparisons:

• A Tesla is about 10X cleaner over its lifetime than a Camry (assuming the Tesla is charged by windpower or solar.
  • Its about 8X cleaner than a tiny Smart Car.
• A Chevy Volt is about 7X cleaner over its lifetime than a Lexus Hybrid SUV
  • Its about 6X cleaner than its kissing cousin the Chevy Malibu

James Adcock

To open, edit, and to perform your own calculations use the link below

• http://www.automobileman.com/solar.xls

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Cleanest and Greenest Car Comparison
Calculations provided by James Adcock (jimad@msn.com)
	SOLAR TODAY EFFICIENT CAR ROUNDUP											12k mile	12k mile	12k mile	12k	12k	12k	12k	12k	CO2	CO2	CO2
10-year											12k mile	E-mode	E-mode	E-mode	fuel cost	bioD	fuel	CO2	fuel	per	per	embed
total	Manufacturer	Model	GVW	mpg	Price	Seats	Drive	HP	Drive type	Fuel	CO2	carbon	carbon	carbon	kWh	CO2	cost	lbs	cost	mile	mile
best								comb			direct	footprint	footprint	footprint	Gasoline	B100	B100	corn	corn	bio	fossil
lb											lb	100% coal	50% coal	PV/wind	Diesel	lb	US$	E85	E85	lb	lb	lb
8,100	Tesla	Roadster (R08)	2,700		$100,000	2	RWD	248	EV250	Li	0	4,110	2,055	0	$330							8,100
15,274	Chevy	Volt (R2010)	3,700	45	$35,000	4	FWD	160	Phev40	Flex	5217	4,110	2,055	0	$877			1,056	$1,120	0.09	0.43	11,100
16,317	Toyota	Prius PHEV (R09)	3,700	45	$25,000	5	FWD	110	Phev40	Gas	5217	4,110	2,055	0	$877			1,056	$1,120	0.09	0.43	11,100
19,245	Honda	Civic GX	3,620	28	$24,000	4	FWD	113	CNG	CNG	8385				$1,286						0.70	10,860
20,152	VW	Beetle TDI (D)	3,784	45	$20,000	4	FWD	110	Tdiesel	D	870				$1,133	880	$1,200			0.07	0.07	11,352
20,152	VW	Golf TDI (D)	3,784	45	$20,000	5	FWD	110	Tdiesel	D	5969				$1,133	880	$1,200			0.07	0.50	11,352
21,604	VW	Jetta TDI (D)	4,268	45	$25,000	5	FWD	110	Tdiesel	D	5969				$1,133	880	$1,200			0.07	0.50	12,804
21,961	VW	Jetta TDI (R08)	4,387	45	$30,000	5	FWD	140	Tdiesel	D	5969				$1,133	880	$1,200			0.07	0.50	13,161
43,258	Honda	Insight (D)	2,380	65	$18,000	2	FWD	90	Hybrid	Gas	3612	4,110	2,055	0	$607			731	$775	0.06	0.30	7,140
57,697	MotoGuzzi	73 850T MC	600	42	$900	2	RWD	50	Gasoline	Gas	5590				$940			1,131	$1,200	0.09	0.47	1,800
61,882	Toyota	Prius	3,615	46	$23,000	5	FWD	110	Hybrid	Gas	5104				$858			1,033	$1,096	0.09	0.43	10,845
63,408	Toyota	95 Tercel (D)	2,937	43	$4,500	5	FWD	93	Gasoline	Gas	5460				$918						0.45	8,811
64,962	M-B	Smart Fortwo	2,090	40	$12,000	2	FWD	71	Gasoline	Gas	5869				$987			1,188	$1,260	0.10	0.49	6,270
66,757	Honda	Civic Hybrid	3,620	42	$21,850	4	FWD	110	Hybrid	Gas	5590				$940			1,131	$1,200	0.09	0.47	10,860
83,712	Chevy	Malibu (L)	4,717	27	$22,750	5	FWD	170	Hybrid(I)	G/Flex	8695				$1,462			1,760	$1,867	0.15	0.72	14,151
84,747	Nissan	Altima (L)	4,535	33	$23,000	5	FWD	200	Hybrid	Gas	7114				$1,196			1,440	$1,527	0.12	0.59	13,605
85,107	Toyota	Camry	4,655	33	$23,000	5	FWD	192	Hybrid	Gas	7114				$1,196			1,440	$1,527	0.12	0.59	13,965
87,666	Chrysler	Sebring	4,180	25	$20,000	5	FWD	189	Gasoline	Flex	9391				$1,579			1,901	$2,016	0.16	0.78	12,540
90,556	Subaru	96 Legacy Wagon	4,100	30	$4,500	5	AWD	130	Gasoline	Gas	7826				$1,316			1,584	$1,680	0.13	0.65	12,300
101,102	Saturn	Aura Green Line	4,717	27	$23,000	5	FWD	164	Hybrid(I)	Gas	8695				$1,462			1,760	$1,867	0.15	0.72	14,151
103,654	Honda	Accord (D)	4,453	26	$31,000	5	FWD	200	Hybrid	Gas	9030				$1,518			1,828	$1,938	0.15	0.75	13,359
111,845	Lexus	GS450h	4,675	24	$59,500	5	RWD	339	Hybrid	Gas	9782				$1,645			1,980	$2,100	0.17	0.82	14,025
116,113	Ford	Escape SUV	4,680	23	$33,000	7	2/4WD	160	Hybrid	Gas	10207				$1,717			2,066	$2,191	0.17	0.85	14,040
119,098	Toyota	Highlander SUV	5,675	23	$33,000	7	2/4WD	200	Hybrid	Gas	10207				$1,717			2,066	$2,191	0.17	0.85	17,025
129,812	Lexus	LS600HL	6,006	21	$105,000	5	RWD	400	Hybrid	Gas	11179				$1,880			2,263	$2,400	0.19	0.93	18,018
Fuel prices	4/2/2008
CNG	3.00	US gal equivalent
Gasoline	3.29	US gallon
Diesel	4.25	US gallon
E85	3.50	US gallon
B100	4.50	US gallon
Electricity	0.11	kWh
		D=discontinued: price shown is Blue Book for final year
		L=limited distribution: check local availability
		I=Idle cut-off/boost system: "hybrid" drive means engine halts and restarts automatically; modest regen braking and electric boost at full throttle
		A=Available as option
		R=Reported limited availability in specified model year
			After initial 40 miles. Carbon calculation assumes 80% of mileage is electric, and charging source is carbon-free
			C02 content	gasoline	20	pounds per mile
				diesel	22	pounds per mile
				coal	1	pounds per kWh